Google a hacker ally

Google could well be a hacker’s best friend. It appears that the popular search engine can be used to find vulnerabilities in corporate websites more quickly than had previously been possible, according to hacking expert Johnny Long. Apparently, there are some 14 ways a malicious user can hack into a site using Google, and there is also a list of organizations with sites that can be hacked in these ways.

"The Google search engine found at www.google.com offers many different features including language and document translation, web, image, newsgroups, catalog and news searches and more," Long said in his advisory on Google on his website. "These features offer obvious benefits to even the most uninitiated web surfer, but these same features allow for far more nefarious possibilities to the most malicious internet users including hackers, computer criminals, identity thieves and even terrorists."